UPDATED NBA PLAYOFF PICTURE: Suns Move Into 6th Seed In West I CBS Sports

UPDATED NBA PLAYOFF PICTURE: Suns Move Into 6th Seed In West I CBS Sports

Devin Booker having himself a game having himself a terrific two games that is 40 points against the cast that’s 92 points for dbook over the last two he and Kevin Durant combined for 72 in the blowout win over the Cavaliers this a good night for Phoenix Sons basketball

Cuz this is how it looks in the Western Conference they’re back into the playoff a top 16 they’ve been teetering on and off of that playin playoff line right now they are there will they be there when the season is done let’s bring in HQ NBA analyst John

Gonzalez and Colin Ward henar for some insight the Suns a team that you know you haven’t had the consistency all season long but this is the formula they had against the Cavs 72 combined for KD and dbook Booker been on a heater of late how do you both view this team

Going into the postseason I’ll start with you Colin yeah to me I mean the game was exactly like the Phoenix Sun Season they look absolutely Unstoppable for the first half and then the Cleveland comes out in the third quarter and just start scoring at will and I’m like well the

Suns have no chance now and then the Suns come back and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant score a bunch of points and they win so I haven’t really learned anything about the Suns this season every time I think I have them figure figured out I think this is a team that

Is coming together they go out and lot to the Spurs or they lot to the thunder without Shay gildas Alexander so uh for the Suns to be able to go into the playoffs saying look when we have Bradley Beal Kevin Durant and dein Booker on the floor we score 122 points

For per 100 possessions we outscore teams by six points per 100 possessions meaning that when those three guys on the court are on the court they generally win games so I think they can rely on that figuring out the rest of this team whether it’s Grayson Allen

Whether it’s nkit whether it’s B bow coming off the bench uh they have a lot of question marks but I think they can have confidence that if they get to the playoffs knowing that those three guys are healthy they can have a chance to win a series against any

Team yeah colins’s right they’re really hard to figure out right I mean they end up winning a game like this one against the Cavs Donovan Mitchell’s out there that’s a good win for them they just beat the pels pels aren’t really great uh at home for some reason still a good

Win for them especially because these last two wins get them out of the play in and into the playoffs proper that’s fantastic but then prior to that as Colin noted you lose to teams like uh the Spurs without wemi or OKC without sgaa this team is excellent when KD and

Booker are cooking they were tonight it’s the first time since November that both of them have gone for 30 or more points but I still want to see a little bit more from this team I certainly want to see more from this team defensively they haven’t been great defensively as

We all know they have not been great in the fourth quarter and then also Devin and then also Bradley Beal he’s been I don’t know certainly an offensive zero for much of the season part of that is his health part of that is acclimating

To a new role on a new team but you’re going to need more from Beal especially if they want to make a run in the postseason and I’m not entirely sold that they’re going to end up where they are right now because still six games left for them and all six games against

Playoff teams so still work to do yeah what you’re both talking about is consistency you just haven’t seen the consistency that you’d like from a team that has these caliber of players now the Suns won’t be one of those teams vying for the top seed in conference you

Saw those standings and this is what it looks like three teams vying for wolves and the defending Champion nuggets TI at the top spot OKC a game off the pace of that Trio John which team is it most important to being one and why Wow I mean I think that uh the

Timber wolves would love to be one uh the Nuggets I think everybody assume will be one Oklahoma City Thunder though are really playing with house money right the youngest team in the NBA they went and won 16 extra games last year than they had the year before they could

Do that again this year they’re looking at a 30 win jump over two seasons they are well well well ahead of the curve so wherever they end up this season I think they’re going to be happy with it because they’re going to be a team in the Western Conference that the rest of

The league is going to have to deal with for a very long time but probably matters the most to the Timberwolves I think uh they play through their defense their offense is just sort of middle of the road they get after you at the other

End of the floor so I I think that the homecourt advant advantage especially with Carl Anthony towns being out would matter to them a lot and it’s interesting that without Carl Anthony towns I really expected that they would greater and they haven’t they’re 10 and four without cat uh they’re still fifth

Defensively over that stretch and 13 offensively so about the same team that they’ve been so a pleasant surprise for them so far yeah I agree with John that that the timber roles would probably benefit the most from being the number one seed I think this is a team that really rides their confidence

Particularly on the offensive end if a guy like Kat can come back for the playoffs uh you know he’s a guy who really thrives off that home crowd and I think Anthony Edwards obviously coming into his own as a superstar uh would benefit from having that one seed um I

Do think that ultimately as John noted that Denver is going to be the team that takes home number one in the Western Conference they have the easiest schedule of the three teams remaining and with Jamal Murray starting to get healthy with that knee I just think they’re going to get into that playoff

Mode into that Championship mode and they want to be playing well going into the playoffs so that means they’ll have to Rattle off a few wins here towards the end of the regular season all right gentlemen that’s tops in the west tops in the league that distinction belongs

To the Boston Celtics they get their 60th win and I know this has been a topic of conversation around the league it’s time for the Celtics if you will to go all the way Colin tell me how a team beats Boston four games in a postseason

Series yeah I mean I wish I knew the answer to that question I think a lot of NBA teams are searching for the answer to that question but I think ultimately what it comes down to if you’re look you’re not going to beat Boston in a depth competition their depth of talent

Is so deep there’s no way you’re going to compete with that what you’re going to need is the best player in the series and that means jannis to DMO that means maybe Jimmy Butler that means you know maybe Joel embi if he’s healthy enough

So uh if you look at the Celtics this is an all-time great regular season team the question marks will come in the postseason in crunch time is Jason Tatum enough to be that guy we’ve seen him kind of fold in previous playoff series is Jaylen Brown going to fall apart or

Is he going to be the guy that’s going to rise to the occasion uh if you look at it on paper you’re not beating the Celtics you can hope they have a cold shooting night but if one or two of their Shooters are off they still have multiple other shooters that are going

To be able to knock down shot so I think ultimately if you’re going to beat the Celtics in a playoff series you need to have the best player and obviously there’s only a handful of teams that can say they even have a chance at doing that yeah Colin’s absolutely right they

Have been the best team in the NBA all season long the most consistent team in the NBA all season long one through six they are the deepest team in the NBA and the reason why they’re the deepest team is all six guys play offense and defense

All six guys can hurt both ways they shoot the most threes in the NBA they make the most threes in the NBA some nights though they’re cold no big deal to them they’ll just get after you defensively I think the biggest threat to the Celtics at least in the Eastern

Conference is the Boston Celtics earlier in the season Joe Missoula said hey you know somebody asked him uh do you feel like this is your thing to win and he said we haven’t won anything yet we don’t feel like people are chasing us we’re chasing ourselves because yes

They’ve made it to the Conference Finals the last two years in a row yes they made it to the finals proper two years ago but guess what they still haven’t had a parade in Boston since 2008 so the Boston Celtics despite all of their regular season accolades and that’s all

Well and good they have a lot more to prove still with this team in the postseason yeah no doubt just does seem like that path to the finals is clear for the Boston Celtics you can kind of see it now let’s go back to the West if

You will Thursday night you got the Warriors at the rockets in a must-win for Houston Golden State’s opened up a three-game advantage on these rockets for that 10th spot which is the final play in assess this Golden State Warriors team what’s the vibe around the warriors with the playoffs around the

Corner I’ll start with you John yeah it was a little shaky there for a second right the Rockets were uh nipping at their heels they had won 11 straight they looked like this young ascendant team that was coming for uh the Warriors crown and then the Warriors

Said no our Dynasty is not over just yet we still have Steph Curry and we still have Draymond Green and we still have to lesser extent Klay Thompson but I think the key really for this Warriors team especially as they’re on this five-game winning streak right now going into this

Game is to make sure that Draymond behaves himself keeps his hands to himself and just plays good basketball he’s an incredible basketball player he’s a really smart basketball player at both ends of the floor he’s got an unbelievable Vision the other night in uh the game against Dallas where Dallas

Had come in as the hottest team in the NBA and the Warriors sna their streak Draymond Green had a Fant fantastic play at the end of the game where he blocked Daniel Gafford he caught the ball was as he was falling out of bounds he made sure he inbounded it to his teammates

And that was a wrap on the game that’s the Draymond Green they need he unlocks so much for them so if he can keep his head on keep his cool the Warriors could actually end up doing something here I know that we’ve been talking a lot about that n910 matchup uh with potentially

The Lakers the Lakers get out of that you could see potentially the Lakers and the Warriors Advance there I really like the way the Warriors are playing right now yeah I’ve been following this team all year I’ve been going to games I can’t really figure out what’s going on with

This Warriors team either I mean uh they start off the year terribly then all of a sudden they look like they could win an NBA title then they’re losing games again now they win five in a row so it looks like you know they’ve been able to

Do like everything right over the course of the Season they’ve just haven’t been able to do everything right at the same time so this last five-game winning streak what they’ve really been able to do is what John hinted out with Draymond Green uh is defense they’ve allowing 102

Points per 100 possessions over that five-game winning streak and that is really what the Warriors have to do because Steph Curry you know has been a little more inconsistent that they than they’d hoped Klay Thompson is now coming off the bench when everybody’s healthy you got young guys like Jonathan kaminga

And Trace Jackson Davis so you don’t really know what you’re going to get from game to game and Andrew Wiggins has been a huge question mark So ultimately I think what it comes down for them uh and they’ve said this Draymond said this Steve K said this if we play defense

Every single night we gives our give our a chance we can’t be that team that goes out there thinks we can just roll the ball out and blow teammates or blow other teams away like it’s 2017 so uh the Warriors have been ticking up recently uh but they’ve done this before

This season and gone right back in the other direction yeah that would be something else though if it’s the Lakers and Warriors for the playing with one getting bounced by the other in that playe he’s Colin Ward henar and John Gonzalez HQ NBA analyst we appreciate the Insight gentlemen yes the playoffs

Are right around the corner go beyond the arc right here on CBS Sports download And subscribe today for the latest around the NBA the association second season is almost here

Colin Ward-Henninger and John Gonzalez join CBS Sports HQ to break down the latest NBA Playoff Picture.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSSports

WATCH
CBS Sports HQ: https://www.cbssports.com/live/
Paramount Plus: https://www.paramountplus.com

FOLLOW US ON:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/CBSSports/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cbssports/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/CBSSports

#nba #nbaplayoffs #nbanews